Inkjet print heads typically include a ‘jet stack,’ a stack of plates that form manifolds and chambers of an ink path from an ink reservoir to an array of nozzles or jets. Ink enters the jet stack from the reservoir and is routed through the ink path to the final plate that contains an array of nozzles or jets through which the ink selectively exits the jet stack. Signals drive an array of transducers that operate on a pressure chamber or body chamber adjacent each jet. When the transducer receives a signal to jet the ink, it pushes ink out of the body chamber through the jet to the printing surface.
The desire for higher resolution images, and increased throughput, results in the need for higher and higher packing density for the jets. The packing density is the number of jets that exist within some predefined space. Space requirements for each jet limit the number of jets that can fit within that space. Current print head designs typically have a serial flow path. Fluid flows into the body chamber through a first discrete fluid element and then flows out of the body chamber through a second discrete fluid element that leads to the corresponding single jet aperture. Each of these fluid elements use a certain amount of real estate associated with the jet stack and have to have some distance between them for separation as well. These effects act to limit the number of single jets that can be packed within the space of any given jet stack.